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An American Princess 



Irene Cowan Tippett 



An American Princess 




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An American Princess 

and Other Sketches 



By 
Irene Cowan Tippett 






Copyright igsi 
By Irene Coivan Tippett 



g)CLA630398 



DONE BY 
THE BOOKFELLOWS 

AT 

THE TORCH PRESS 

CEDAR RAPIDS 

IOWA 



NOl/ 22 1921 



I humbly and affectionately dedicate 
this little volume to the United Daugh- 
ters of the Confederacy, through whose 
indefatigable effort many precious rec- 
ords of our Southern orators and states- 
men and the history of our Army and 
Navy have been preserved. 
But for their solicitous care, many Con- 
federate veterans and their families 
would have been destitute. They have 
alleviated the sorrows of penniless old 
age and have kept a torch burning in 
Memory's Hall, where the living may 
read of the heroic deeds of the dead. 



CONTENTS 

An American Princess 9 

Daughters of the Confederacy . . 30 
Alabama Eoom Home of League o:f 

Nations 41 

The Invulnerable Spirit of the 

Khaki 51 



AN AMERICAN PRINCESS 

When Achille Murat, son of Caroline, sis- 
ter of Napoleon Bonaparte, and Catherine 
Willis Gray, a daughter of Virginia, were 
united in marriage, it was one of the many 
illustrations of the admiration America 
awakens in the heart of a Frenchman. 

The friendship of France and America is 
of long standing. From the tune Lafayette 
crossed the sea to come to the help of the in- 
fant republic; to the time Pershing stood 
at the head of his tomb and cheered the 
weary, war-worn soldiers of France with 
his now famous words, ^^ Lafayette, we have 
come!" the two nations have joined hands in 
mutual protection. 

Nearly three quarters of a century after 
the marriage of Prince Achille to a Virgin- 
ian, the name of Murat came before the eyes 
of the world again, when Woodrow Wilson, 
also a son of Virginia, on his first visit to 

9 



France during the world war occupied the 
Murat home in Paris. 

America sent her chief executive across 
the ocean in a floating palace, with a distin- 
guished retinue, and on his arrival he was 
received with greater pomp than that ac- 
corded any sovereign of recent times. 

At the request of the French government, 
Prince and Princess Joachim Murat placed 
their town house at 28 Pue de Monceau at 
the disposal of the French authorities to 
receive President and Mrs Wilson. 

Prince Joachim Murat is the son of Prince 
Lucien Charles Murat, and was born at Bor- 
dentown, New Jersey. He is a descendant 
of Caroline Bonaparte. Princess Murat 
before her marriage was Cecile Ney, Duchess 
d'Elchingen. Both Murat and Ney were 
marshals in the Napoleonic armies. 

During the war Prince Murat, despite his 
age, reentered the cavalry. The Princess 
spent a great part of her time at the Chateau 
de Chambly in the Department of the Oise, 
where she looked after several hundred 
wounded French soldiers. 

The splendor of the famous Murat man- 
sion is well known ; the extravagance of the 

10 



bedrooms, the dinner service of solid, glit- 
tering gold, the priceless paintings and tap- 
estries. *^ There are marbles and mirrors 
everywhere, vari-colored marbles from the 
remotest quarries of the world." 

It must have given the President great 
pleasure to find here various souvenirs of 
General George Washington, presented, no 
doubt, by his grand niece, the Princess Cath- 
erine. 

Many Southrons of yesterday have writ- 
ten their names on the pages of history, but 
the name of Woodrow Wilson, like the name 
of Abou Ben Adhem, leads all the rest. 

Statesman, historian, idealist, he was an 
adversary fiercely opposed, yet compelling 
admiration. General Jan Christian Smuts, 
premier of South Africa, in an article writ- 
ten for the New York Evening Post, takes 
the position that Mr. Wilson was so placed 
that he could not have achieved what the 
world was expecting of him, even if he had 
been a superman or a demigod. 

His failure to bring about a peace with his 
famous fourteen points was due to the per- 
versity of human nature. He explains: 

**Tlie position occupied by President Wil- 
li 



son in the world's imagination at the close of 
the great war and at the beginning of the 
Peace Conference was terrible in its great- 
ness. Probably to no human being in all 
history did the hopes, the prayers, the aspir- 
ations of so many millions of his fellows 
turn with poignant intensity as to him at 
the close of the war. At the time of the 
deepest darkness and despair, he raised aloft 
a light to which all eyes had turned. His 
lofty moral idealism seemed for a moment 
to dominate the brutal passions that had 
torn the Old World asunder. And he was 
supposed to possess the secret to remake the 
world on fairer lines. The peace which 
Wilson was bringing the world was expected 
to be God's peace. Prussianism lay crusht; 
brute force had failed utterly. The moral 
character of the universe had been most sig- 
nally vindicated. There was a universal 
great hope of a great moral peace, of a new 
world order rising visibly and immediately 
on the ruins of the old. . . In this atmos- 
phere of extravagant, almost frenzied ex- 
pectation, he arrived at the Paris Peace Con- 
ference. Without hesitation he plunged into 
that inferno of human passions. . . He 

12 



labored until he was a physical wreck. . . 
After six months of agonized waiting, he 
emerged with the Peace Treaty, but it was 
not a Wilson peace. . . Let us admit the 
truth, however bitter it is to do so for those 
who believe in human nature. It was not 
Wilson who failed, but human nature itself 
that failed at Paris. . . Idealists believe 
in the power of the spirit, in the goodness 
which is at the heart of things, in the triumph 
which is in store for the great moral ideas 
of the race. But this faith only too often 
leads to an optimism which is sadly and 
fatally at variance with actual results. It 
is the realist and not the idealist, who is 
usually justified by results. . . Paris 
proved this terrible truth once more. Hu- 
manity itself failed and not the statesman. 
The hope, the aspiration, for a new world 
order of peace and right and justice, how- 
ever deeply and universally felt, was still 
only feeble and ineffective in comparison 
with the dominant national passions which 
found their expression in the Peace Treaty. 
Even if Wilson had been one of the great 
demigods of the human race, he could not 
have saved the peace." 

13 



The Manchester (England) Gtiardian sent 
an eloquent tribute to the New York Times 
by cable. . . ''A thrill of joy and pride, 
such as never came again, went through the 
huge British army in France on the day 
when the news spread that Germany had 
sued for peace on the basis of Mr. Wilson's 
famous fourteen points. . . Had Mr. 
Wilson had persuasive strength equal to his 
clarity of vision, he might have dominated 
at Paris the little crowd of post-war imita- 
tors of pre-war Germany. '^ 

The name of Lafayette awakens memories. 
In the Washington home at Mt. Vernon may 
be seen many relics once used by this gallant 
Frenchman. During his visits to the United 
States he was often accompanied by Prince 
Achille Murat, who, as has been mentioned, 
married the grand niece of General George 
Washington, and it was General Lafayette 
who introduced the Prince to Catherine 
Willis. It is extremely interesting to re- 
member that the Prince was a nephew of the 
great Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, and so 
closely resembled him that Belgian soldiers 



U 



often stopped Mm on the streets, and with 
tears in their eyes would shower his hands 
with kisses. With the blood of the great 
warrior Napoleon coursing through his 
veins, and the heritage of an ambition that 
knew no bounds, with a mind of such bril- 
liancy that he was able to converse easily in 
seven di:fferent languages, Achille Murat 
astonished France by coming to America and 
refusing every offer of political advance- 
ment. He settled down to the quiet life of 
a southern gentleman. 

A brief reflection of the sacrifices made on 
the altar of ambition and the last desolate 
hours spent by Xapoleon on the island of 
St. Helena, together with a brief outline of 
the career of his father and its tragical end- 
ing, brings the answer. 

Before beginning the history of the Mur- 
ats a short outline of the career of the 
father, Joachim Murat, will enable the read- 
er to account for many of the idiosyncrasies 
of Prince Achille. 

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica; 
as a very young man he was dismissed from 
the army several times for insubordination. 



15 



In Paris, he gained a reputation for Ms 
good looks, swaggering attitude, and the vio- 
lence of his revolutionary sentiments. 

He served in the army under Napoleon 
and was rapidly promoted. He was a cav- 
alry leader whose dashing bravery inspired 
his men to almost superhuman courage. Af- 
ter the Battle of the Pyramids he was made 
General. In 1800 he married the youngest 
sister of Napoleon, Maria Annunciana Car- 
olina. They had two sons: Prince Achille 
Murat and Lucien Charles. 

In 1808 he was appointed by Napoleon to 
the throne of Naples, made vacant by the 
transference of Joseph Bonaparte to Spain. 
King Joachim Napoleon, as he styled him- 
self, dazzled Naples with the unusually ex- 
travagant splendor of his clothes and his 
sumptuous court. Being placed in author- 
ity, his caliber immediately became evident. 
His vain-glorious nature prompted him to 
break relations with Napoleon to whom he 
owed his prominence, and he began to enter- 
tain thoughts of suspicion against his wife, 
who, he imagined, wished to dethrone him. 
He grew reckless in his political ambition to 
extend his dominion and in his headstrong 

16 







w 



efforts to carry out his plans ; he was finally 
imprisoned in the fort at Pizzo and on the 
13th of October, 1815, he was tried by court- 
martial under a law he himself had made 
concerning the disturbing of public peace, 
and he was sentenced to be shot in half an 
hour. 

After reading his father's career and its 
tragical ending, it is small wonder that 
Achille Murat apparently had no political 
ambition, but refused many offers of ad- 
vancement and spent the best part of his 
life on his favorite plantation called Bcon- 
chattie, located near Tallahassee, Florida. 
Here he wrote a number of books on the 
constitution and politics of the United 
States, and spent his pastime experimenting 
in cooking and making discoveries as to the 
dyeing properties of certain plants and veg- 
etables. 

The following excerpts were taken from 
an article written by Matilda McConnell 
which appered in the Century Magazine in 
the year eighteen-ninety- three : 

*^ Catherine Willis was a daughter of a 
Colonel Willis of Virginia. At the age of 

17 



fifteen, Catherine married a Scotchman. At 
his death, a year later, Catherine Willis 
Gray became a widow at the age of sixteen. 

'^At this time many political refugees 
found homes in America. Prince Achille 
Murat, who was the eldest son of the King 
of Naples had visited America several times 
with Lafayette. On his last visit, his broth- 
er, Lucien Charles came also, and in a short 
while after their arrival. Prince Achille met 
the young widow Catherine. 

*^At their first meeting Catherine did not 
receive a favorable impression. He was ex- 
tremely careless in dress and manners, but 
as time went by, she began to recognize his 
superior intellect and excuse his peculiari- 
ties, and after a most unusual courtship, the 
grand-niece of George Washington became 
the wife of the nephew of the great Corsican, 
Napoleon Bonaparte. At this time, the home 
of Prince Murat and his charming wife be- 
came the gathering place for a coterie of 
brilliant and cultured men and women." 

When distinguished northern friends 
came down to visit these lord-like slavehold- 
ers, their regal entertainment furnished a 



18 



topic of conversation long after the visit 
was nothing more than a memory. All 
classes, including the slaves themselves, un- 
consciously imbibed these ideals of hospital- 
ity, and when a stranger was invited to break 
bread, the host, even at the expense of a 
future sacrifice, welcomed him with a cor- 
diality equal in spirit to that of his princely 
neighbor. 

With the leisure of the nobility, the land 
holder, having little in the way of athletics 
or sports to furnish diversion, turned in- 
stinctively to his library, and seated on his 
wide verandah, with the perfume of honey- 
suckle and magnolia about him, he climbed 
the Alps, glided silently through the streets 
of Venice, visited Paris, cultivated the war- 
like Romans, ancient philosophers and poets, 
and unconsciously laid the cornerstone of 
culture and chivalry, which through coming 
generations will be the birthright of the 
Southern gentleman. 

The story continues : 

^'Prince Achille was eccentric to a painful 
degree, and many amusing little stories were 
told at his expense. The Murats spent the 



19 



best part of their married life at Econchat- 
tie, their large plantation in Jefferson Coun- 

ty. 

^^On one occasion, after the arrival of 
several unexpected guests, an excited servant 
informed the hostess that there was not 
enough flour left to prepare an elaborate 
meal, and it would be necessary to send a 
messenger twenty miles to purchase a bar- 
rel. Unfortunately the messenger was not 
told what he was to buy and instead he pre- 
sented a note in the wretched hand writing 
of the Prince. The storekeeper could not 
read it and he called in several others who 
could not decipher it. Finally, after long 
deliberation, the servant was sent back, car- 
rying with him a lancet with which to bleed 
horses. Imagine the helpless consternation 
of the hostess with a number of hungry 
guests awaiting dinner!" 

Let us leave the Murats long enough to 
pause for a moment and recall that history 
has recorded many instances where wives 
have been obliged to bear the burden of their 
husband's eccentricities. The wives of great 
men, statesmen, artists, and musicians have 
been subjected to much adverse criticism. 

20 



Instead of commending her as a thrifty 
housewife, who has mastered the art of mak- 
ing one guinea do the work of five, the world 
asks the question: ^^How did he happen to 
marry herV^ 

William Wordsworth is accused of having 
formed the habit of waking up in the mid- 
dle of the night. ^^O wife," he would say, 
^^I have had an inspiration. Get up and 
hunt a pencil and paper. I have thought of 
a good word for one of my poems." 

An American woman once remarked that 
if she had been the unfortunate wife, she 
would have replied, ^^Get up yourself hus- 
band, I have thought of a bad word." 

Xantippe, the much abused wife of Socra- 
tes, had a dreadful time making both ends 
meet, as Socrates spent most of his time 
ambling about the streets of ancient Athens 
making speeches to the rabble. The exas- 
perated wife was often obliged to interrupt 
his weighty discourse by making impatient 
demands for money in order to obtain daily 
provisions for the family, for even a philoso- 
pher must eat. Yet an old English writer 
describes the long suffering wife as a 
^'shrewd, curste and wayward woman, wife 

21 



of pacient Socrates.'' How many Xantip- 
pes there are in the world! 

Madam Murat must have had many des- 
perately embarrassing moments caused by 
the carelessness of the absentminded Prince, 
but it is said that she could never refer to 
him without tears in her eyes, for in spite of 
his peculiarities, he was a most affectionate 
husband. 

*'At one time. Prince Murat owned a large 
sugar plantation in Louisana, and one day 
while showing visitors over the place he ven- 
tured too near and fell into what appeared 
to be a vat of boiling syrup. His friends, 
in alarm, quickly assisted him out, and in 
answer to their inquiries to his being burned 
he replied : ' Kate will make me wash ! ' He 
had a decided aversion to water and drank 
it only when mixed with whiskey. ^ Water,' 
he said repeatedly, 'is intended only for the 
beast of the field.' 

^* Prince Achille bore a striking resem- 
blance to his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte, and 
while in Belgium in command of a regiment 
he was often stopped in public by soldiers 
who knelt and covered his hand with kisses, 
and during the while he conversed with them 

22 



in seven different languages. He remained 
in Belgium two years. 

* ' During their stay, the Princess was asked 
to chaperone two English girls on a long 
ride in the country. She was given a lively 
English steed so strong she could not manage 
him. The Princess, being a typical Ameri- 
can girl, decided that she would not allow her 
friend to discover the real truth of the mat- 
ter, so being unable to restrain her horse, 
she let him go at a rapid gate. ^How well 
you ride. Princess! But how fast! Do all 
Americans ride so fast?' After a few hours 
they returned, Catherine Murat nearly dead 
with fatigue and the English girls loud in 
their praise of her wonderful horsemanship. 

*^ After returning to America, the Murats 
lived for a while in St. Augustine and later 
in New Orleans, where the Prince studied 
law and was admitted to the bar. However, 
they eventually returned to Econchattie and 
he served as Alderman, Postmaster, and 
Mayor of the city of Tallahassee. During 
the Florida Indian war he was aide-de-camp 
to Gen. R. K. Call. The love of the Princess 
prompted her to follow the Prince most of 
the time he was engaged in the Indian war 

23 



and she watched over him many times when 
her own life was in danger. Once he lay 
prostrated with fever for many weeks. Dur- 
ing the time the wife attended him in places 
of peril and was often obliged to lean over 
him in the darkness to ascertain if his heart 
was still beating, not daring to burn a light, 
lest the Indians should discover their hiding 
place." 

A favorite story at the expense of the 
Prince is often heard in Tallahassee : 

^'At one time Madame Murat went away 
to spend the day with a friend. On her re- 
turn home, as she approached the house, a 
huge cloud of smoke could be seen. Think- 
ing the house was on fire, the wife arrived 
in frantic haste. In her absence, her hus- 
band had decided to experiment with certain 
plants in order to see if dyes could be made 
from them. They found him in the back 
yard perspiring over a huge kettle. *0 Kate,' 
he exclaimed, ^I have made all your clothes 
a most beautiful pink, you will look so lovely 
in them ! ' He had, in his enthusiasm, dyed 
indiscriminately everything he could lay his 
hands on, sheets, towels, pillowcases, and all 



24 



the clothes he could find. Fortunately, the 
servants, perceiving his intention, had hid- 
den their mistress' best gowns. 

^^His experiments in various other lines 
were still more alarming. ' Alligator tail soup 
is fine — but BUZZARD is not good.' His 
gentlemen friends were extremely careful 
about accepting an invitation to dine when 
the wife was not at home, as the host always 
expected his guests to help him pass judg- 
ment on his freakish concoctions. 

''He died at Econchattie in 1847, and his 
remains lie in the Episcopal cemetery in 
Tallahassee. During his lifetime, the Mu- 
rats visited their royal cousins, and soon af- 
ter the death of the Prince came the restora- 
tion of the Bonapartes. They did not forget 
their charming cousin Kate, and on her next 
visit to. France, she was given a royal re- 
ception by the Emperor. On this occasion 
a most extraordinary little courtesy was 
shown her by giving her the seat of honor 
which was usually occupied by the Empress. 
She afterwards remarked to some of her 
friends in Tallahassee that the dazzling 
splendor and the sudden realization of the 



25 



honor bestowed upon her excited her so 
much, she never knew how she was able to 
walk down the steps. 

*^ Presuming that the Empress was suffer- 
ing from indisposition, the Princess asked to 
see her. When she was ushered into the 
room, she was astonished to see the Empress 
in perfect health and she advanced to meet 
her with open arms. ^ Ah Eugenie, ' laughed 
the husband, 'will you never remember that 
you are an Empress?' The royal family 
tried to persuade their cousin to make her 
home in France where she might live in 
great magnificence." 

At this time came a significant moment 
in the life of Catherine Murat which unmis- 
takably revealed her caliber. 

Louis Napoleon and the Empress, know- 
ing of her loneliness, gave her an insistent 
invitation to remain in France. The Em- 
peror offered to maintain a magnificent es- 
tablishment at his expense. But with the 
undying love and patriotism a Southerner 
feels for the Southland, Catherine Murat 
replied that she must return in order to 
care for her two hundred slaves who would 
require assistance after having been granted 

26 



their freedom, and instead of occupying 
a palatial establishment in royal circles, 
this charming, cultured, democratic Ameri- 
can woman returned home and spent the 
remainder of her life at Bellevue. The pho- 
tograph used in illustration shows how 
Bellevue looks today. The Princess un- 
doubtedly denied herself many luxuries in 
order to make ends meet, for the inside of 
the cottage was neither stained nor painted. 
The house sits some distance from the road, 
on the crest of a small hill overlooking the 
city of Tallahassee. The estate, originally, 
covered many acres. 

^^ After the close of the war, many white 
and negro families were in dire distress. 
Every day found her carriage at the door of 
the Hospital with some delicacy for a sick 
soldier. Many of the slaves were suffering 
for necessities. About this time came a 
movement on the part of the women to make 
a special effort for the preservation of 
Mount Vernon. Being a grand-niece of Gen- 
eral Washington the Princess made a mighty 
effort and raised three thousand dollars for 
the cause. In desperation, she sacrificed 
many of her jewels which she shipped to 

27 



New York uninsured. In some manner they 
were lost in transit and nothing came of the 
sacrifice. 

^' While she was very poor, Napoleon set- 
tled a large annuity upon her. ^God bless 
Louis!' she said to a friend. *One night, I 
lay awake thinking of what I would do for 
money to live on and the next night I lay 
awake thinking of how I would spend my 
money. ' 

'^The devotion of her slaves, after their 
freedom, was a silent testimonial of her lov- 
ing kindness and at her death their grief 
was inconsolable. Mt is ompossible for mis- 
sus to die,' they protested brokenly." 

The United Daughters of the Confederacy 
was not organized until 1894, but Catherine 
Murat was a most exemplary Daughter. Af- 
ter her death she was laid to rest by the side 
of her husband. They lie under plain mar- 
ble slabs and tourists, unfamiliar with the 
story, stare in amazement at the two simple 
marble shafts, one of which contains the in- 
scription, '^Prince Achille Murat, eldest son 
of the King of Naples." 

This brings to a close the story of a south- 
ern woman in whose veins ran the bluest 

28 




A Portion of What Was Once a Landscape Garden at 
Bellevue. 



blood in America, a Daughter of the Confed- 
eracy whose undeniable charm and nobility 
of character prompted her to return home 
and take up her burden of genteel poverty 
in the difficult days of reconstruction. 



29 



DAUGHTERS OF THE 
CONFEDERACY 

^'The patriotic ardor and devotion 
of the men and women of the South, 
their valor and heroism, their en- 
durances and sacrifices, their for- 
titude and forhearance in defeat, 
their proud resolution to rise above 
the horrors of reconstruction and 
their determination to rebuild their 
devastated country, will never be 
fully told, but as the years go by, 
we should keep these things in the 
Booh of Remembrance/^ 

— From aint Address by a U.D.C. 

^^Of what real consequence is the organiza- 
tion — the United Daughters of the Confed- 
eracy ? Isn 't it an organization of sentiment, 
more passive than active ? Do they pretend 
to be charitable?" 

The gentleman who advanced this ques- 
30 



tion was a New Englander, and his igno- 
rance was excusable, but when a refined 
Southern woman hinted at the same con- 
clusion, it was distinctly shocking. 

Since Sept. 10, 1894, this remarkable pa- 
triotic organization has modestly marched 
forward toward its ultimate goal, overcom- 
ing seemingly insurmountable obstacles and 
today it occupies a unique place in the an- 
nals of American history. 

While the writer feels unworthy to record 
any of the virtues of this band of noble wo- 
men, for the benefit of any who should doubt 
the importance and far reaching influence 
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 
and without asking their permission, I am 
presuming to attempt as briefly as possible 
to give an outline of the nature of their un- 
dertakings. 

The excerpts given are taken from var- 
ious chapters found in the minutes of Annu- 
al Conventions. The prevailing sentiment 
is expressed by Ruth Jennings Lawton, 
President of the South Carolina Division, 
when she says : . . . ^^and so we are not 
unmindful of these men, who gave their all 
for us, realizing, as we do, that a people f or- 

31 



getting its past, deserves itself to be forgot- 
ten.'' 

Again, another expresses their tender in- 
terest: ''The Confederate Veterans and the 
Women of the Confederacy should be our 
first consideration. We care for them in life 
and honor them when they have passed into 
the Great Beyond.'' 

It is a sad, deplorable fact that the major- 
ity of old soldiers are without adequate 
means of support, and being too proud to 
accept promiscuous assistance, would have 
suffered untold privations but for the sup- 
port offered them by the U. D. C. chapters. 

A few figures from various reports will 
give an idea of the work that is being done 
along different lines. It will be remembered 
that many of these reports came from small 
towns where amounts cannot be raised ex- 
cept by personal sacrifices. 

''Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts 

to soldiers $50.00 

Thirty baskets of fruit for sick vet- 
erans 37.00 

Coal and food for needy soldiers . . 65 . 99 
Care of veterans and families in 
northern states 



32 



Donations for memorials 

To educate French and Belgian orphans 

Armenian relief 

Donation for service man — soldier in 

world war 
Division scholarships." 

Hundreds of dollars are spent yearly for 
the relief of Confederate women, their chil- 
dren, and their grand-children. 

The Education Committee: ^^ Madam 
President-General and the United Daugh- 
ters of the Confederacy: Your Education 
Committee in presenting this, its twelfth an- 
nual report, brings you the glad tidings of 
a new stage reached in the development of 
the most important of your activities. The 
first Education Committee felt the need of 
a fund to assist a student wherever he de- 
sired to obtain an education, and so in 1909, 
a recommendation was adopted to bestow 
the scholarship living fund then given, with 
whichever tuition scholarship the student se- 
lected ; but the plan was not practical at the 
time, therefore Washington and Lee and 
Vassar scholarships were definitely provid- 
ed for. The need persisted however, finally 
being answered in Miss Poppenheim's res- 

33 



olution for a $50,000.00 endowment fund for 
loan scholarships, adopted at Chattanooga. 
The following year this was changed into 
a great memorial for the boys of the South 
who saw service in 1917-1918, and the first 
interest from the fund set aside as gift 
scholarships for these boys, the fund to be 
employed as planned when they no longer 
needed it. Through this wonderful Hero 
Fund the U. D. C. have entered this fall on 
a definite constructive policy. Hitherto, 
the General Organization has been but an 
agent giving out the scholarships that have 
been given to it, except in the cases of the 
appropriations to the scholarships referred 
to above. Now it is in a position to pay its 
way, and as this fund increases, to open the 
doors of any institution over the whole 
world to Southern boys and girls." 

This spring Part Wx 2 of Education Cir- 
cular number 17, issued April 1, 1920, was 
headed 1917-1918 Hero Fund. 

^^To honor the men of the South, who 
served their reunited country wherever 
needed in 1917 and 1918 and to offer assist- 
ance to the descendants of Confederate vet- 
erans, who have served in the world war." 

34 



A number of ex-service men have already 
taken advantage of this excellent opportun- 
ity and have attended the following colleges : 

Princeton University. 
Tulane University. 
University of Virginia. 
University of Alabama. 
Clemson College. 
University of North Carolina. 
State Agricultural Colleges. 
S. C. Medical College. 

With the help of the Hero Fund, many 
young men, who would have otherwise spent 
their lives behind counters, have been able 
to enter colleges and acquire professional 
and vocational training. 

Outside of this fund for ex-service men, 
provision is made for the education of boys 
and girls in the South who could not enter 
college without some assistance. 

Scholarships may be secured each year 
through local chapters, to be used at any of 
the following colleges: 

Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
Washington and Lee University, Lexing- 

ington, Va. 
Stonewall Jackson College, Abdingdon, 

Va. 

35 



Converse College, Spartanburg, S. C. 
Davidson College, Davidson, N. C. 
Elizabeth Mather College, Atlanta, Ga. 
Gulf Coast Military Academy, Gulfport, 

Miss. 
Sophie Newcomb Memorial Institute, New 

Orleans, La. 
Universitv of North Carolina, Chapel 

Hill, N.^ C. 
Medical College of South Carolina, Char- 
leston, S. C. 
Lucy Cobb Institute, Athens, Ga. 
University of Virginia. 
Army and Navy Preparatory School, 

Washington, D. C. 
Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, 

Ala. 
Centenary College, Cleveland, Tenn. 
Eastern College, Manassas, Va. 
Harriman College, Harriman, Tenn. 
Martin College, Pulaski, Tenn. 
Meridian College Conservatory, Meridian, 

Miss. 
Marian Institute, Marian, Ala. 
Presbyterian Preparatory School, Annis- 

ton, Ala. 
Randolph-Macon Academy, Fort Royal, 

Va. 
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, 

Tex. 



36 



Southwestern Presbyterian College, 
Clarksville, Tenn. 

Springside School, Chestnut Hill, Penn. 
St. Mary's School, Memphis, Tenn. 
Trinity College, Durham, N. C. 
University of Alabama, University, Ala. 
University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. 
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 
University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. 
University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. 
Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Mo. 
Breneau College Conservatory, Gaines- 
ville, Ga. 
Columbia Institute, Columbia, Tenn. 

This is the list given in full for the in- 
formation of any who might be interested. 
Each state, through Divisional Chapters, 
supports fifty or more divisional scholar- 
ships. 

The following report shows the total ex- 
penditure for educational purposes from 
November, 1919, to November, 1920 : 

290 and over Scholarships in Di- 
visions and Chapters, value . . $57743 . 00 

73 Scholarships in General Or- 
ganization, A^alue 9370 . 00 

23 unclassified scholarships . . . 3525 . 00 



Total Scholarships in U. D. C. $70638.00 
37 



Assistance given schools and col- 
leges $4139.00 

Assistance given libraries 518 . 50 

1,364 volumes presented to li- 
braries 1535.25 

237 prizes and medals to students 1677 . 15 
Gifts to schools 3031.50 

Total expenditure $81539.40 

Involuntaril}^ comes an exclamation. 
''How magnificent!" From the Minutes I 
take this paragraph : 

''Human beings, through the toilsome 
yester ages, have learned the art of living 
together. Out of elemental impulses grew 
family life with a spirit of love, self sacri- 
fice and a sense of duty as to the rights of 
each in relation to the rights of all. Out 
of family life, as we know, grew national 
life with its evolving democratic principles 
of government, based on the consent to be 
governed. Good government depends on the 
educated intelligence of the governed, so we 
swing to education as the keynote of prog- 



ress." 



What a privilege to have even a small 
share in such an undertaking ! 

The work of the Confederate Museum has 

38 



gone forward slowly but surely, and the 
U. D. C. are now looking forward to the day 
when they will be able to erect a library on 
the grounds of the Museum. 

For many years untiring effort on the 
part of the members has resulted in a splen- 
did collection of relics, books, manuscripts, 
gifts, etc., in memory of some hero of the 
'Sixties. 

The Provisional Constitution of the Con- 
federate States of America is one of the 
priceless manuscripts found in the Museum 
and the Original Great Seal of the Confed- 
erate States of America is also in their keep- 
ing. 

Visitors stand before the cases of Lee, 
Jackson, Stuart and Johnson and look with 
reverence on what was actually worn or used 
by these men who helped to make a world's 
history. 

In addition to what has already been men- 
tioned, costly monuments and memorials 
have been erected all over the United States 
in honor of the South 's distinguished dead. 

America is always in pursuit of the al- 
mighty dollar. But for the perseverance of 
its women, many valuable records of orators, 

39 



statesmen, and veterans serving in the war 
between the states, also soldiers serving in 
the world war, would have been irredeem- 
ably lost. 

Mrs. C. F. Harvey, President of North 
Carolina Division, in her welcoming address 
at the annual convention, held in Asheville 
in nineteen-twenty, pays this beautiful trib- 
ute to the land of her birth: 

^^ Dixieland is a land of memories and tra- 
ditions; memories sacred and sweet, with 
traditions that inspire in us the love of coun- 
try. We are justly proud of our ancestry; 
its achievements, its deeds of valor, its feats 
of endurance, its fortitude and courage are a 
sacred heritage." 

In attempting to offer a closing eulogy to 
this, perhaps the most patriotic organiza- 
tion of its kind in existence, I chanced to 
find these beautiful words in the Twenty- 
seventh Annual. 

'' ... women whose stories will al- 
ways live, glorious examples of truest wo- 
manhood, tender and pure, beautiful and 
gracious, women whose souls were bound up 
in a cause, than which earth knew no 
nobler." 

40 



ALABAMA EOOM HOME OF LEAGUE 
OF NATIONS 

'^Ah Sir Lancelot, there tJiou Uest, 
Thou ivert head of all Christian 
Knights, and I dare say, thou wert 
the courtliest Knight that ever hare 
shield. Thou wert the kindest man 
that ever strake with the sword. 
Thou wert the meekest and gentlest 
that ever ate in the hall among la- 
dies and thou wert the sternest 
Knight to thy mortal foe that ever 
put spear in rest." 

— Tribute to Robert E. Lee. 

Through the activities of Admiral Raphael 
Semmes, an Alabaman and a distinguished 
naval veteran, the room of the Town Hall 
in Geneva, Switzerland, in which the various 
international offices are located, will be 
known as the ^'Alabama" room, for it was 
in this room that the famous controversy 

41 



between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain was settled. Here it has practically been 
decided that the League of Nations will have 
its permanent abiding place. The Geneva 
correspondent of the Christian Science Mon- 
itor gives ns some interesting details con- 
cerning the cause of the christening. 

A mural tablet which commemorates the 
event reads as follows: ^^On September 
14th, 1872, the arbitration tribunal consti- 
tuted by the Treaty of Washington, pro- 
mulgated in this room its decision regarding 
the Alabama claims. In this way, there was 
settled in a pacific manner the difference that 
had arisen between the United States and 
the Kingdom of Great Britain." 

The vessel which Captain Eaphael 
Semmes commanded — the Alabama — was 
built for the Confederate government by 
Laird & Sons, Berkshire, England, and it in- 
flicted such terrible injury on the shipping 
of the northern states during the Civil War, 
that when the war ended disastrously to the 
South, claims were made against England 
by the North, based on the tremendous losses 
sustained by the activities of Semmes. It 



42 



was a small vessel carrying only eight guns 
and intended not for fighting, but preying 
on defenceless ships. It was a screw steam- 
sloop, 1,040 tons register, built of wood and 
for speed rather than strength. She was 
bark-rigged and had two engines of 350- 
horsepower each. While great secrecy was 
enjoined in her construction and the purpose 
of the vessel, the government at Washington 
got secret information that led it to call 
England's attention to the matter, but be- 
fore England could take definite action, the 
vessel had disappeared and gone to sea. The 
crew consisted of eighty men all told and 
had an armament of only eight 32-pounders. 
The history of the Alabama consists of a 
monotonous succession of captures in differ- 
ent seas, her prizes being principally mer- 
chant vessels which were burned, or when 
there was convicting evidence of neutral 
ownership of her cargo, were liberated on 
bond. She captured in all 65 vessels, and the 
value of the property destroyed has been es- 
timated at many million dollars. It was, 
however, by causing increasingly heavy 
insurance for war risks, and still more diffi- 



43 



culty in getting freights that her career in- 
flicted the greatest injury to the ship owners, 
and the great hurt to the union cause. 

Finally, an enemy ship, the ^^Kearsarge," 
appeared. Captain Semmes, according to 
one historian, did not know the extent of the 
superiority of the enemy ship. The Kear- 
sarge had considerable advantage in number 
of crew, armament, speed, and general con- 
dition, beside she was, in some degree, 
protected amidships by rude armor. The 
fight took place outside the harbor at Cher- 
bourg and about noon Captain Semmes sur- 
rendered, his vessel having begim to sink, 
and twenty minutes later, the Alabama dis- 
appeared under the water. As she went 
down, Semmes and forty officers and men 
plunged into the sea, and were picked up by 
the English yacht ^^Deerhound'' that had 
brought out a party of sightseers from Cher- 
bourg. The English government refused to 
deliver the men when called upon to do so, 
and out of this incident grew intense feeling 
on the part of the United States, which con- 
tinued until after the Civil War. 

It will be interesting to the rising gener- 
ation of southerners to know that John A. 

44 



Boles, solicitor of the navy department, to 
whom was given the work of looking up the 
evidence against Semmes, in his report said : 

^^Not only did Semmes' official conduct 
conform to a well known policy of the Amer- 
ican navy, but it was directed by similar 
instructions from the Secretary of the Con- 
federate Navy. Do the enemy's commerce 
the greatest injury in the shortest time, was 
Mr. Mallory's significant order to Semmes, 
and never in naval history has an order been 
so signally obeyed." 

Naturally, Alabama is very proud of her 
distinguished veteran, and several chapters 
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy 
bear his name. 

In Washington, District of Columbia, in 
nineteen-seventeen the parade of the Con- 
federate Veterans took place. The follow- 
ing tribute to the heroic old soldiers was 
written by Richard J. Beamish, staff corres- 
pondent for the Philadelphia Press, It is 
exquisitely beautiful, throbbing with tender- 
ness for the boys of the 'sixties, who can 
linger but a few more years. 

'^I have seen an army of ghosts today. 
Gray as graveyard mist it was, and slowly 

45 



as graveyard mist it drifted past. . . . 
No more pathetic spectacle was ever wit- 
nessed in Washington than that which un- 
folded and dissolved like a dream this morn- 
ing. . . . Like a dream it will remain 
with those who looked with seeing eyes, a 
dream in which human sacrifice was viewed 
through a veil of tears. 

^^From all parts of the South they came, 
those who gave their all to follow Jefferson 
Davis and his generals in their unavailing 
efforts for secession. Above the creeping, 
dull-gray line flew the rebel Stars and Bars. 
Eebel battle flags that had flashed forward to 
victory at Bull Eun and had been driven 
from Pennsylvania soil at Gettysburg 
showed their shell torn tatters through pro- 
tective webs of silk as they were lifted high 
above the stooping ranks. But beside the 
cross-barred flag floated Old Glory, and up- 
on the withered chests of the men in gray 
gleamed the tri-color that spells both France 
and America. 

'^No inauguration procession within the 
memory of Washington brought forth en- 
thusiasm that compared with that that swept 



46 



over the hundreds of thousands who saw 
the thin gray line today. 

^^ Never can I forget the last rank of the 
Arkansas division. There w^as the usual 
flutter of flags, the usual applause as the fine 
old commanders of the division on their se- 
date livery horses paced by. Then came the 
ranks on foot. Clad in that peculiar death- 
gray of the Southern back-woods, they came 
with the slow silent movement of oncreeping 
age. . . . But the unforgettable feature 
of that rear rank was a plain old woman of 
the Arkansas back woods at the end of the 
line near the President. Little and bent, she 
was in all rusty black. Her black bonnet 
was of another era and her dress was of no 
recognizable period, but no woman in all 
Washington, not Mary Custis Lee, who com- 
bines all the blood for which the South glad- 
ly faced death, not the beautiful wife of the 
President in her modish and becoming rai- 
ment, nor any other woman in or out of that 
parade received half the attention or one- 
tenth the honor that followed the little old 
woman of Arkansas. 

^^For she walked with her hand in that of 



47 



her dauntless lover. Close to ninety was he, 
and feeble almost unto death, but the spirit 
that rode with Stuart kept him moving slow- 
ly, painfully, steadily on. His weariness was 
such that his head fell forward upon his 
chest. It was only by the full force of an 
imperious and unshaken will that he lifted 
his eyes from the cruelly hot asphalt to sa- 
lute with a heart-breaking effort at old-time 
gallantry the President of the United States. 
Every step took from him hours of life, but 
he pressed on and on. 

'^The little old woman in black steadied 
hhn when he faltered, and at intervals 
fanned him with a crumpled newspaper, 
whispering words of assurance as she did 
so. Then the command to resume the march 
came and she took his hand and drifted on 
with her man, a black edge to the fog of liv- 
ing gray. Hundreds of helpers besides the 
little old woman in black were among the 
10,000 in the slow, gray line. Daughters 
and sons were there to lend cheer and helpful 
arms to men that were dare-devils in the 
great struggle and who marched with firm 
steps, but these were plainly the drummer 
boys in the days of the 'sixties. 

48 



^^ Just to show how they felt about the lit- 
tle affair into which we have just entered, 
they carried banners, ^Damn a man who 
ain 't for his country right or wrong. ' ' We 11 
go to France or anywhere you want to send 
us.' ^Call on US boys if YOU can't do it.' 

*^I saw faces made noble by war-time sac- 
rifices and by hardships nobly endured, faces 
that stood out softly in the mist, each like a 
Moses carved from a cloud by a Michael 
Angelo. Never have I seen such majesty 
of Americanism as in the slow, loving salute 
with which they turned their faded eyes and 
withered hands towards the President. It 
was an expression of eternity; of that un- 
quenched and unquenchable spirit, that, 
please God, will hold America together while 
life lasts." 

OLD GLORY 

Here's to the red of it. 
There's not a thread of it, 
No, nor a shred of it 
In all the spread of it 

From foot to head, 
But heroes bled for it. 
Precious blood shed for it. 

Bathing it red. 

49 



Here's to the white of it, 
Thrilled by the sight of it, 
Who knows the right of it. 
But feels the might of it 

Through day and night; 
Womanhood's care for it, 
Made manhood dare for it. 
Purity's prayer for it, 

Kept it so white. 

Here's to ihe blue of it. 
Heavenly blue of it, 
Star-Spangled hue of it. 
Honesty's view of it, 

Constant and true ; 
Here 's to the whole of it. 
Stars, Stripes and pole of it 
Here's to the soul of it, 

EED, WHITE, and BLUE. 



50 



THE INVULNERABLE SPIRIT OP 
THE KHAKI 

^^ Lafayette — we have come" 

Perhaps nothing in the history of mankind 
is half so sweet as the silence that follows 
the hush of the roar of the cannon. 

Peace, like a great brooding dove, is hov- 
ering over the world and her wings are con- 
triving to cover any obstreperous little na- 
tion which, like an unruly chick, attempts to 
wander from the nest and stir up a contro- 
versy over a choice morsel. 

Today the American flag has a new signi- 
ficance, for in the great commonwealth of 
the United States mansions and tenements 
alike were crushed beneath the heel of the 
grim-visaged War, and there were few 
homes that did not send forth some bright- 
eyed, red-lipped boy to become cannon fod- 
der for the insatiable guns of the Germans. 

East, West, North, South — fired with 
patriotism our khaki-clad boys entered 

51 



eagerly into tlie strenuous experience of in- 
tensive training. With blistered feet and 
aching heads, men less robust than their 
comrades, having spent practically all their 
lives in a class room in silk shirts and flan- 
nels, sat in the sickening glare of a shadeless 
cantonment, and with that keen sense of 
humor which characterizes the khaki, wrote 
letters home. 

' ' Say ! Hello Dad ! I 've been promoted. I 
am now acting Madonna of the Cook stove. 
Tell mother at dishwashing I'm a whirlwind 
and at potato peeling I'm a graduate." 

From the soft, clear eyes of a debutante, 
these young Americans, looking across ISTo 
Man's Land, saw through a cloud of vile 
smoke and gas the distorted features of the 
approaching Hun, 

^^Oh forget it! forget it!" the ex-soldier 
exclaims irritably. 

But America should never forget it— - 
that Reign of Terror. 

No warrior of any nation, however bar- 
baric, knew of any torture that equalled the 
horrors of mustard gas, classed shrapnel, 
and high explosives. 

Some member of the Marine Corps, in a 
52 



letter home, makes what he calls a feeble 
attempt to describe modern warfare: 

' ' There is nothing in the history of heaven 
or earth or nightmares of a deranged mind, 
that can offer a sunile to this war. . . 
Sherman's expression is mild and civilized 
. . . so battles have intensified until they 
are a million hells rolled into one." 

This was written after twenty days or 
more at Chateau Thierry where inexperi- 
enced soldiers, who had never faced shell 
fire, dashed into the thickest of the fray like 
veterans, and according to an ofiicer in 
charge : 

^^ Never have men fought under the flag 
with greater heroism, dash, and gallantry, 
than did those machine gunners of the lone 
battalion at Chateau Thierry. ' ' 

Even now rosy-cheeked school children 
are being told of the remarkable valor of 
their older brothers on the battlefield. 

They hear of the superb action in Belleau 
Wood and Argonne Forest — of the Thir- 
tieth Division, composed of boys from the 
states of Tennessee and the Carolinas, who 
broke the Hindenburg line and struck terror 
to the heart of Germany — the Thirty-sixth 

53 



Division from Texas — the Rainbow Divi- 
sion — and their eager little mouths fly agape 
at the daring of the naval aeroplanes. 

The pugnacity of the Wild Cats from Ala- 
bama is said to have become alarming, for 
like Don Quixote, the Knight of olden fame, 
when they had no living thing to attack, they 
fought the inanimate. 

The masterful generalship of Pershing 
filled the average recruit with an overwhelm- 
ing sense of awe. At one time while review- 
ing some troops from a southern canton- 
ment, the general exclaimed in astonishment : 

^'Why, lieutenant, here is one of your men 
who can't even stand attention.'' 

The lieutenant, a very young man, 
coughed, choked, and cleared his throat, and 
wondered if he might dare to explain the fact 
that String Beans was born with a crooked 
back and to straighten out his anatomy 
would be nothing short of an impossibility. 

^^ Well, how did you like the general's com- 
pliment?" the boys asked the long, lanky 
youth on whom Pershing had looked con- 
temptuously. 

^^ Don't know no thin', he said," answered 



54 



string Beans, grinning. *^ Couldn't hear it 
for the music." 

^^Music?" 

^^Yes, har! har! gosh ding it, my knees 
were playin' Home Sweet Home." 

Noticeable about our heroes in khaki, is 
their impenetrable reserve and their innate 
modesty concerning their deeds of bravery. 
While reading that thrilling story, ^'With 
the Help of God and a few Marines, ' ' I came 
across this letter, a portion of which I take 
the liberty to quote : 

^^ Machine guns were everywhere. We 
saw one German a short distance before us, 
who had two dead, ones lying across him. 
He Avas in a sitting posture and shouting, 
*Kamerad! Kamerad!' We discovered he 
was serving as a lure, and wanted a group of 
marines to come to his rescue, so that the 
kind hearted Americans would be in direct 
line for the machine guns that were in read- 
iness. . . Before I knew what I was do- 
ing, I bobbed up and stuck my bayonet in 
that Kamerad bird, while the others were 
all shouting at me to stay back. My pack 



55 



was pretty badly shot up — but they didn't 
get me. After that I thought I was bullet 
proof, but on the second day a machine gun 
got me in the right arm, just above the el- 
bow. . . I picked up the part of the arm 
that was hanging loose and started to walk 
to the dressing station, and I nearly got 
there." 

Innumerable instances of other indomi- 
table spirits have been cited by war corre- 
spondents. 

^^When you are thinking about battle- 
fields," exclaimed a private, *^and dwelling 
on the luxury of a pick and shovel, and the 
sight of a dead man with a cigaret in his 
hand and with his head blown off, don't for- 
get the COOTIE, for it belongs in the same 
class. Omnipresent, devilishly sociable 
with a bottomless pit for a stomach, the 
cootie came into his own when Germany 
cried Havoc 1^^ — and let loose the dogs of 
war. With two exceptions he showed little 
partiality but visited majors and privates 
alike. Many a time while I was looking to 
see how many more dozen I could add to my 
collction, I 'd look across the way and see ole 
Maj. in Suicide Annex, exploring his shirt 

56 



also, paying no attention whatever to the 
death hiss of the shells in the heavens.'' 

The sociable one, it seems, had a preference 
for underwear and Eed Cross knitting. 

Many grotesque looking objects, knitted 
by children and school girls at home, reached 
the helpless Sammies in the cantonments. 

^^ Several girls sent me sweaters," confided 
a soldier, ^^but my best girl was named Elsie. 
Well, Elsie, bless her heart — can't do any- 
thing but shake a mean biscuit with her foot- 
sies, but she learned to knit and crocheted me 
a sweater. The holes in that sack were near- 
ly as big as a half dollar and she wrote and 
asked me : 

" ^How do you like it. Precious "?' 

'' ^Well, Kiddo, if you don't mind my say- 
ing so, she's a corker. She is wonderfully 
and fearfully made and will stretch from 
earth to heaven.' " 

This invincible spirit of humor stuck to 
the American soldier through the most cru- 
cial moments, and even in the trenches, again 
and again with machine guns belching a 
leaden death, Sammie never exhausted his 
reserve stock of wit and humor. 

**Ha! Fritzie try again! Rotten aim, old 

57 



Buddy! Heigho! IVe put your address on 
this shell Hunnie!" and now and then the 
comical wail of ^'Oh! if Mama could only 
see little Willie now!'' 

A characteristic story was told me by a 
sergeant who formed the habit of cultivat- 
ing the acquaintance of old men and women 
in Prance and trying to induce them to tell 
him historical stories. 

On one occasion a little old French woman, 
about to celebrate her eightieth birthday, yet 
still vivacious and attractive, insisted on ac- 
companying the young soldier to the city, 
where some kind of a festival was in pro- 
gress. 

*^She told me more about the customs, tra- 
ditions, and history of France than all the 
other people I met put together, so I told her 
to come along and she and me would have 
the time of our young lives. How she'd 
laugh when I'd say that! Well, you know 
French people are death on wines. At the 
banquet, she kept drinking and drinking and 
then she'd say the cutest things you ever 
heard. I kept on begging her not to fill her 
glass, for she was such a nice little old wo- 
man, with about a million wrinkles on her 

58 



face, and I hated like the dickens to see her 
get tipsy, but she simply wouldn't' stop, and 
finally, ' ' — he laughed so heartily at the recol- 
lection, he was obliged to pause and get his 
breath. 

^^What on earth did you do with her?" I 
asked curiously. 

^^Well," answered the boy, his white teeth 
gleaming, '^I didn't have any long green 
to hire a taxi, she — didn't live far — and she 
didn't weigh much, so yours truly picked her 
up and carried her." 

Little wonder the old women of France at 
the sight of our army said to themselves: 
^^Ah! we are saved! We are SAVED. The 
Americans have come — and their legs are 
of a bigness!" Truly the sight of a husky 
regiment in khaki was enough to inspire this 
confidence. 

^^Oh!!!! here is Captain — won't you 
please tells us about that awful time when 
you spent eighteen days in Argonne For- 
est?" several college girls implored a young 
man who had just returned from the trench- 
es. 

He shook his head, but in spite of the mas- 
tery of mind over body — in a moment, he 

59 



was back again and he heard the rage of a 
wild, demoniacal tempest — he felt himself 
pushing on into a forest reeking with poison 
gas and bristling with bullets — then a lull 
— and the end of another day — a gray 
morning when his brother was left behind 
and the memory of a salute — the only salute 
a private ever received — somewhere in 
France. 

^^ Please," begged the girls, innocent of the 
hurt they were inflicting. 

^^Once," said the officer evasively, *^when 
I was a kiddie, I had a hobby horse, and 
every night I'd feed him straw and hay and 
every morning father and mother would take 
the food away and I thought my pony was 
eating. Then my mother bought me a choc- 
olate coated rabbit that was so ornamental 
I used to put it on the parlour mantel so the 
company could admire it. ' ' He stopped and 
lifted his eyebrows significantly: '^And — 
when I was sure my mother was too busy to 
watch me — every time I had a chance, I took 
it down and licked it. ' ' 

The eager friends were silent. Something 
in the mute appeal to allow him f orgetful- 
ness, had reached them. 

60 



Such is the enviable spirit of our soldier. 

As a result of high explosives, gas, and 
other fiendish inventions hitherto unlvnown 
in warfare, hundreds and hundreds of ex- 
service men are now languishing in govern- 
ment hospitals, sleeping in plaster casts and 
iron jackets. It is enough that they should 
fight the Hun, but they are still battling — 
with a foe that is seldom conquered. 

^'What is the matter, if I may ask?" you 
inquire of an inmate. 

*^0h, I went to France, was gassed, got a 
scratch that was neglected. Now I've got 
T. B., but I'll get weU, lots of fellows do, 
don 't you know ? ' ' 

^^God bless each particular hair on each 
particular head!" exclaimed a grayhaired 
woman as she came out of Kenilworth hos- 
pital at Asheville. 

**Cut it out, grandma," urged her grand- 
son who had left his right leg on No Man's 
Land ; then he added imploringly : * ' Try to 
be a good sport like me — old top!" 

Flower of our manhood in homes for the 
incurable! Youth of our army sleeping in 
Flanders ! 

Brigadier-General Catlin expresses the 
61 



belief that America went into this war sole- 
ly to save the ideals of Christianity from 
destruction. 

^^It is my country that sent its manhood 
to fight and die for that cause. It is my 
country that stands here on the great West- 
ern continent, facing the future with faith 
undimmed, ideals untarnished, in the full 
strength of her prime, the world acknowl- 
edged champion of the right of man. God 
save my country ! " 

^'Yes, it is good to battle, and good 

to he strong and free, 
To carry the hearts of a people to 

the uttermost ends of the sea, 
To see the day steal up ' the hay, 

where the enemy lies in wait. 
To run your ship to the harbor's lip 

and sink her across the strait. 
But better the golden evening, when 

the ships round heads for home. 
And the long gray miles slip stviftly 

past, in a stvirl of seething foam. 
And the people wait, at the haven's 

gate, to greet the men who win. 
Thank God for peace! Thank God 

for peace, when the great gray 

ships come in." 



62 



H 19 89 4 



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HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. |e| 

€^ DEC 88 
W N. MANCHESTER, 
^ INDIANA 46962 








